Reposted from the reach forum on request First off, I am extremely glad Bungie decided to do what they did. By altering the canon a bit, they have exposed the playerbase to a character that truly connects the games to the books; connects all things Halo together. There was always a barrier separating the lore of the books and the lore of the games. The games never made any serious references from the books. There were quotes and homages, but no one ever said "this happened and this is who said it". The books may as well have not existed for all the connection they had to the games. But no more. Dr. Halsey is probably the most important person in the entirety of Halo, right right up there with MC and Cortana. She existed in the books before she existed in the game, so the decision to have her play a major role in the game removes the barrier and makes the entire series feel much more complete and connected. They had to do a little bit of retconing in order to make this happen, but in my opinion the changes are all completely worth it, and only really changes events that happen directly during the battle of reach; 98% of the book the Fall of Reach is still completely legitimate and canonical. 1. In the books Dr. Halsey did not know who/what the Spartan-IIIs were until after Reach fell. While Halsey is the creator of the spartan program, she had no involvement in the approval and upbringing of the S-IIIs, it was all done under her nose. In the game this is still completely true. Reading through Halseys Journal reveals that she was unaware who everyone on Noble team was minus Jorge. She had some strong leads as to another younger generation of spartans but never any hard facts until after Reach fell (ghosts of onyx). Sadly the journal...or anywhere else does NOT reveal how Jorge ended up working with noble team. 2. IN the books, cortana was aboard the pillar of autumn when reach was attacked. Also, the POA never went planet side, it was fighting in space during battle. Also, the coordinates to the Halo ring were found on the fly right before the jump. They were based on the forerunner crystal MC and co found on Cote d'azur at an earlier date. This is still mostly true. Halseys journal states that the discovery near sword base on reach required some powerful computing power. She needed cortanas expertise to divulge the secrets that the forerunner artifacts contained. She also knew Blue team needed here expertise for their high risk mission they were preparing for. SO she split Cortana into two parts, blue team keeping one, and Halsey keeping the other. The part Halsey kept contained all her data analysis power, and that is what she used to figure out the secrets of the forerunner artifacts. When both parts were reunited, thanks to Noble 6, Master Chiefs section of cortana would update herself with all the data that Halseys piece had. So while noble team is indeed transporting cortana, they weren't transporting all of cortana. This is detailed in her journal. 3. The dead spartans littering the ground during the mission Lone Wolf are Spartan-IIs. They belong to what we know as "red team" (more on that later). Red team consisted of 26 or so spartans and there was only an official death for a handful of them on Reach (other than "died on reach" that is). I found it very fitting that noble 6 makes his last stand amongst his brothers. They could not have been S-IIIs because noble team were the only S-IIIs to be outfitted with Mjolnir mk V armor. 4. It is assumed Jun dies along the way to castle base. I suppose in the new can it is entirely possible to say he survives though. In First Strike Halsey was rescued from castle base by members of Red team and Jun is never mention. However First strike is apparently slated to be re-released, so Jun could theoretically be included. Until we have the new book to say otherwise, we can unofficially say he died, as that's what the books, for now, say. 5. The most important change is the length of the battle. In the books it lasted about a day, but in the game it lasts 2 weeks plus noble teams actions against the scouting force. To organize all this I made a timeline with all the relevant information included. Aug 13th - Noble team discovers that the scouting party they had been engaging in facr belongs to a full sized invasion force belonging to a cloaked covenant super-carrier. The fact the the covenant are on Reach and attempting to invade it is no longer a secret the UNSC are trying to keep under wraps. In response to the threat, the UNSC decides to send 60% of the ENTIRE navy to combat the super carrier and any other potential threats. Their eta is 48 hours. Aug 14th - Noble team succeeds in destroy the super carrier. Shortly after the real invasion force arrives at reach. Over 300 covenant ships arrive to destroy the planet. Aug 15th - By now, 60% of the UNSC fleet has arrived and is fighting for Reach. It can be assumed that the Pillar of Autumn as well as Master Chief and his spartan-IIs arrive around this time as well. Aug 23rd - Jun makes the comment "Is it true that gauntlet, red and echo teams are assigned to civilian evac ops?". Kat says "All I'm saying is why put spartans on defensive deployments?". Obviously gauntlet, red and echo teams are spartan teams. We know in the book that red team consisted of all the spartan-IIs minus MC, linda and james, but the read team in the book was also made under different circumstances; a fight that only lasted a day as opposed to weeks. It can be assumed that instead of splitting the spartans into two teams (Red and Blue), Master Chief split them into four teams, Red, Blue, Gauntlet and Echo. Since they were fighting for 2 weeks then it would make sense that they would be in smaller more self sufficient team so they can cover more of the planet and do more missions. Note that Jun mentioned this on August 23rd, so we have undeniable proof that the spartan-IIs had been fighting at least since the 23rd, but it is safe to assume that they had been doing missions (both on and off planet) since the 15th, when the UNSC fleet arrived. Aug 27th - Dr Halsey recalls all the still living spartan-IIs to her location on Reach in order to discuss their final battle plans for their suicide mission to destroy the covenant heirarchy. This is detailed in her journal. Aug 28th through Aug 30th - Dr. Halsey and Cortana divulge the true meanings of the symbols beneath reach. By cross referencing them with the symbols that MC and co had dug up on cote d'azur, they discovered something of great importance: Halo. They did not know what Halo was, but they did know that the covenant wanted it, which was why it was so important that they figure out its secrets. With the planet falling to pieces and communcation severely limited however, she had no way of getting cortanas data on this revelation to Keyes or John herself. In comes noble team. She (or cortana rather) manages to "trick" them in to coming to her in order to get the data to the right hands. The death of most of the spartan-IIs as well as the potential of the halo ring means they call of the spartan-IIs original missions in lieu of the discovery. Concluding.... That's that. Now that bungie has introduced the non-book crowd to Dr. Halsey, they have opened the lid of halo lore to the masses. In future game we won't have to settle for minor homages to the books, they might flat out mention stuff in the books like it actually happened! The connection will continue to grow and Halo will turn into the giant massive seamless universe I always wanted it to be. I wish it was done sooner however, I personally feel that the lack of a connection between book and game hindered halo 2 and 3 a bit. I envision a Halo 3 where John is reunited with the surviving members of red team before they head for the ark but...that's just wishful thinking now. I wish bungie could make one more Halo game but alas, for them it is over. Thank you bungie. PS - Ironically Jorge is the only member of noble team who is actually MIA as he could technically be alive. Those of you who have read "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole" might just understand why. [Edited on 09.17.2010 3:58 PM PDT]